Thursday, April 18 : Saint Leo the Great

There is no doubt therefore, dearly-beloved, that man’s nature has been received by the Son of God into such a union that not only in that Man Who is the first-begotten of all creatures, but also in all His saints there is one and the self-same Christ, and as the Head cannot be separated from the members, so the members cannot be separated from the Head. For although it is not in this life, but in eternity that God is to be all in all (1 Corinthians 15:28), yet even now He is the inseparable Inhabitant of His temple, which is the Church, according as He Himself promised, saying, Lo! I am with you all the days till the end of the age (Matthew 28:20)… It is He whose sufferings are shared not only by the martyrs’ glorious courage, but also in the very act of regeneration by the faith of all the new-born. For the renunciation of the devil and belief in God , the passing from the old state into newness of life, the casting off of the earthly image, and the putting on of the heavenly form — all this is a sort of dying and rising again, whereby he that is received by Christ and receives Christ is not the same after as he was before he came to the font, for the body of the regenerate becomes the flesh of the Crucified… This it is whereby the Lord’s Passover is duly kept With the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth by the casting away of the old leaven of wickedness (1 Corinthians 5:8 ) and the inebriating and feeding of the new creature with the very Lord. For naught else is brought about by the partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ than that we pass into that which we then take , and both in spirit and in body carry everywhere Him, in and with Whom we were dead, buried, and rose again, as the Apostle says, For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. For when Christ, your life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory (Colossians 3:3-4 ).
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team